


If You Need Me (I’ll Be There In 5)

by hopelessmikaelson



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: F/F, Past Josie Saltzman/Penelope Park, Past Loner!Hope, Rotating P.O.V.’s, Semi-Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-29
Updated: 2019-03-29
Packaged: 2019-12-26 09:18:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18280232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopelessmikaelson/pseuds/hopelessmikaelson
Summary: “Watching Josie smile and laugh around Hope Mikaelson was torture for her. Penelope was almost friends with Hope too at one point. They had gotten along, and if all her energy and attention hadn’t been devoted to making sure Josie was always as happy as could be, perhaps spending more time with the tribrid could’ve had things turn out differently.”OR With the twins’ sweet-sixteen fast approaching and Josie’s recent closeness with Hope, Penelope decides that she wants Josie back for herself.





	If You Need Me (I’ll Be There In 5)

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter set in Penelope’s P.O.V.

Penelope was jealous. She would _always_ be jealous when it came to Josie. The two had spent such a significant portion of their lives together, how could she not be?

Watching Josie smile and laugh around Hope Mikaelson was torture for her. Penelope was almost friends with Hope too at one point. They had gotten along, and if all her energy and attention hadn’t been devoted to making sure Josie was always as happy as could be, perhaps spending more time with the tribrid could’ve had things turn out differently.

Instead, Penelope watched from afar as she let her feelings of jealously turn to hatred toward the Mikaelson daughter. Josie and Lizzie were right to hate her. Hope really did steal people - first she had taken the twins’ father from them, and now she’d taken Josie from her.

Penelope hadn’t let herself experience too much anger since she’d first starting dating Josie, and she certainly didn’t willingly allow herself to express it in fear of scaring Josie away, but now that they were no longer together, there was no one to stop her from what she’d do next.

* * * * *

She recruited Jed, though he joined rather reluctantly. Everyone in the school, aside from Penelope herself and now Josie, apparently, was afraid of just how much power the only child of the original hybrid truly possessed.

Hope had spent almost all her time at the Salvatore School in isolation, and while many were grateful they wouldn’t have to deal with another alpha in the school’s hierarchy, it also meant that no one knew exactly what she had been up to for the last decade. For all they knew, Hope could’ve been perfecting a spell using dark magic that would wipe out the entire continent, and seeing as there was nobody, not even Headmaster Saltzman, who could even begin to guess at the tribrid’s full potential, she very well could’ve been.

Jed agreed to help Penelope because she was his cousin, and because Penelope had told him that her plan was only meant to make Josie happy. As her only remaining blood relative, Jed was the only one who Penelope would dare talk to about her feelings for the brunette siphoner. When he realized just how much his cousin, who seemingly cared about absolutely _nothing,_ actually cared about Josie Saltzman, he had promised himself to make sure that the two would end up together.

For her next recruit, Penelope selected M.G., promising him a real shot with her hopefully one-day future sister-in-law, Lizzie Saltzman. M.G. had also reluctantly agreed, but after Penelope had pointed out just how close Lizzie had grown to Rafael, he gave in. M.G. was good for two reasons: his loyalty meant that he could be both trusted and easily persuaded, and his close relationship with Josie.

With two on her side, Penelope would need just one more.

 _‘Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer,’_ she thought to herself.

* * * * *

Hope Mikaelson was alone in the gymnasium, throwing light punches at a sandbag. It’d only taken a fake emergency for Penelope to have Dr. Saltzman miss his daily training session with the other girl.

“Hey,” Penelope called out, “you busy?”

Hope stopped and looked back curiously.

“No? But since when has that mattered to you?”

‘Master-Manipulator-Penelope-Park’, as Lizzie had once called her, began to work her magic - her _non-magic_ magic, that is.

**Step 1: Appeal to their ego.**

“So, I think everyone around here knows you’re the most powerful of anyone in this school...”

**Step 2: Make them feel as if they are the one in power.**

“...and there’s something I need help with...”

**Step 3: Overload their ego.**

“...that only you can help me with.”

Hope smirked to herself.

“You think that highly of me, huh. Well, I guess if I’m the _only_ one who can help you, I can’t really turn you down, now can I?”

**Step four: Appear weak and vulnerable.**

Penelope looked to the floor, and hesitated before speaking.

“I mean, I guess you could...”

Hope laughed, almost victoriously.

“Well, you’ve gotten yourself this far. What is it you need from me?”

_Bingo._

“I was wondering if you could help me with a spell.”

“What kind of spell?”

“Dark magic.”

Hope was intrigued, but played along anyway.

“You know we’re not supposed to use dark magic on school property, right?”

“Yeah, it’d be off in the woods where Emma’s stupid detector thing wouldn’t find it.”

“And what exactly is this spell meant to do?”

“It’s a talisman protection spell...for Josie. I know everyone at this school thinks I hate her, but I don’t, and I’m not sure if you know this already, but we aren’t together any more.”

Hope knew. Hope had only began talking to Josie because she _knew_ that the two witches had broken up.

“Anyway, I just thought that if the two of us aren’t together any more, I’d still like for something to be looking out for her. To keep her safe.”

Penelope knew Hope would be fully on board with that. If the spelled pens she’d given out last Christmas had revealed anything of use to her, it’s that Hope had recently developed a not-so-subtle crush on her ex.

“Of course I can help with that. I can do it after school today?”

“Oh, I was thinking more like Saturday or something.”

“That’s four days away? The spell really isn’t that hard.”

“I know. I’m just busy with some stuff,” _Planning._ “and I need a little time to get everything ready. Also, can you not tell Josie? Sometimes she gets a little weird about this kind of stuff because she thinks she doesn’t need extra protection, but it’s just like an extra safety net, you know?”

“Right. Okay, let me know when you want to do it. You know where to find me.”

 _‘Yeah,’_ Penelope thought, _‘Wherever the rest of the school is avoiding.’_

* * * * *

Her conversation with Hope had gone marvellously. Hope had agreed, and by giving a few days time before the real thing, she had both portrayed a fake sense of unpreparedness _and_ given the tribrid time to let her mind pointlessly wander over exactly what was going on.

_‘Let them come up with their own conclusions. There’s nothing more catastrophic than one’s own thoughts.’_

* * * * *

Saturday was fast approaching, and Penelope was eagerly stirring with excitement over the prospect of having Josie all to herself once more.

She triple checked the ingredients she’d prepared to take with her, and set them under her bed for tomorrow’s adventure.

It was funny, in a way, that if not for herself, her plan would actually benefit Lizzie the most. The sudden _disappearance_ of Hope Mikaelson under the guise of a birthday surprise for Josie? Brilliant, if she could say so herself.

In her meeting with Jed and M.G., Penelope had told them that they had to pretend that they thought the spell they were doing was to spell a talisman. She said that Hope didn’t want anyone to know about her surprise for Josie, so the two of them would have to pretend they didn’t either.

_Perfect._

With all her pieces in place, she was more than ready for tomorrow.

The four of them would travel out to the woods after class, and Hope would begin a spell that was supposed to spell the talisman she’d be given. Hope was to believe that Jed and M.G. were just security in case anyone was out in in the woods, but she’d managed to convince the two that the spell was so powerful that they were really there to hold Hope down if she began to lose control.

In the end, Hope would be transported into the talisman, but M.G. and Jed would believe that she’d been teleported to Europe to be with Caroline for when the twins went to see their mother to celebrate their birthday.

She’d fake a note in Hope’s handwriting, _easy enough with all the pages in her diary to copy from,_ and leave it under Dr. Saltzman’s door for him to find. He’d probably find it hard to believe, but she’d leave a bit in there about how he’d have to trust her because she didn’t want either of the twins finding out, and Alaric was not about to get in the way of a happy surprise for his daughters.

Then, when everyone found out that Hope was not in fact with Caroline, she’d pretend that she’d done a spell that _Hope_ had asked _her_ to do, and that she had done it _exactly_ as Hope had asked.

Chaos would ensue, and while everyone would be out searching for Hope, a heartbroken Josie would be waiting for her, just as she had been for Hope after Penelope had broken up with her earlier.

Then, after everyone gave up searching for the tribrid that no one seemed to want at the school anyway, all would be right in the world. In _Penelope’s_ world.


End file.
